365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Finding A Tree

12/3/19

"I still can't believe I forgot the tree of all things," Judai muttered a couple days later, holding on to Yusei tightly as he drove them a little bit out of the city to where a Christmas tree farm was located. He felt him laugh lightly under his grip, which prompted him to laugh a little in amusement himself.

"None of us would've remembered if you hadn't, so at least you did remember," Yusei said, revving the bike a little as he came out of a turn. They were probably having a little too much fun speeding on the roads outside the city, but there weren't many others on the road since it was early morning so they decided to take advantage of it, with Judai cheering loudly from the back whenever he sped up or made a sharp turn.

"Yeah, and even then we're lucky Phoenix decided to make it easier and get us a free delivery - I have no idea how we would get this thing back otherwise," Judai grinned, thinking back to the party. Edo had gotten his fill of laughing at him and teasing him after a few minutes, at which time he pat him hard on the back and recommended this particular place to get a tree from. Apparently it was where he bulk-ordered trees from during the holidays for events, and he had plenty of discounts at his disposal to give out to anyone he wanted.

That was when Judai realized that, y'know, everyone in the apartment only had motorcycles, which weren't exactly conducive towards hauling a tree back home. Needless to say he took the offered free delivery immediately once Edo suggested it, and endured the teasing remark from Carly that it better be all lit up and pretty when she came over.

Which, of course, was another thing they needed to do - buy lights and ornaments and a tree topper. Judai still wasn't sure exactly what kinds he wanted (which he only says because Yusei had already made it clear to him that he did not care what they were, just that he was happy with how they turned out), he just knew that he was starting completely from scratch. He vaguely remembered having some custom ornaments for certain things during the holidays in his childhood where they actually had a tree set-up, and he really liked the idea of it. It was just a matter of figuring out what things he wanted the custom ornaments of and/or for.

They reached the place pretty quickly since it wasn't too far out from the city, and after they'd both gotten off and taken off their helmets, they stopped to look at the horizon of snow-covered trees. It was quite the pretty sight, and when combined with the fresh, crisp, and cold air that accompanied it, it was just a pleasant experience overall.

"Well then, shall we? I'm pretty sure we just go in and start wandering, and then go get someone once we find the one we want," Judai stated, giving Yusei a smile and threading their hands together once he got a nod and a smile in return.

The different areas were clearly labelled with what height and what kind of tree the section had, and the paths in-between each of the sections were wide and made it very easy to tell them apart. The trees themselves were all clumped together randomly and a little hard to get around sometimes, but navigating the sections? Easy.

"How tall do we want it to be anyway?" Judai wondered, glancing between a couple of the signs around them, "We've got a lot of room for it, but I don't think we want it to be too tall."

"Probably no higher than the stairs go..." Yusei mused, tilting his head cutely as he studied the trees around them - Judai couldn't help but grab his attention with a light tug on his arm and lean up to give him a quick peck on the lips, grinning at the immediate smile it brought to his face, "Love you, too. Also, go with no higher than eight feet, please."

"Got'cha! Can do," Judai winked, tugging him off to look through the seven foot trees nearby first, "Come on, let's go! If you see any that look good to you just tell me and we can compare."

"Alright, just don't complain when the ones I pick aren't what you're lookin' for," Yusei warned, nudging him playfully in the side, "You're the one that's picky about how it looks."

"Damn right I'm picky, only the best tree for us! Speaking of which, I guess I should explain what's considered 'good' to you..." he realized, giving him a sheepish look and laughing when he got a couple eskimo kisses to the face in response.

"Yeah, that'd probably be for the best."

It took a while for them to find the tree, along with a couple incidents where they bumped into a tree and got a load of snow dumped onto them as a result, but they did eventually find one - it even got the Yubel-stamp-of-approval when she decided to actually come out for once to look. Now it was just a matter of actually finding someone to help them get it tagged and cut...